The best story EVAR?!

...well, I don't know about that, but it sure is one of the zaniest I've written (that says a lot). After being horribly wounded in a fight against one of the Four Devil Kings, innocent and offense-challenged warrior Ruby Little Blade is tricked into releasing an ancient evil from its prison. So upon realizing her mistake, she drags her mangled body back into battle to put things right. En-freakin-joy!

Editing Oracle, I need to get it down to 120,000 words for it to stand a chance. Hard going, re-writing small sections, removing others. Been at this since November. Even if it fails, it is good practice.

The cover is finally ready and I couldn't be more excited. Much better than what I came up with when I self-pub'd. Just waiting for the design to be finished, I suppose, and that's the kind of progress I like.

Got to chapter 45 or so on the first typed draft... Seventy some-odd-thousand words so far. I'm expecting to condense the chapters down and combine them together, so it'll end up with something more along the lines of thirty instead of the insane number I have now.

In the whole "raising awareness" effort I had an epiphany this morning. I've been depending on the fact that I had a publisher translating into some form of success, but I realized that they are just as much depending on me for their own success. Pretty profound.

Anyway, I don't want to tie up the thread, but I will post again when the book is *actually* available for consumption!

You know, all too often we get dragged under by attempts at perfecting our art- to catch their eyes and impress them enough to sign us on. We forget that if it weren't for us, they wouldn't have their jobs, or their successes.

Its important to remember that. In order to retain the quality of work that we produce, we must find pride in ourselves.

I love seeing everyone's progress reports. It is good to see so many people working at it.

As for me, I think I finally got my head around the synopsis and came up with a good one for my book. I've picked the first round of agents I'm going to submit to and, after another pass on the letter, synopsis, and sample content (for those who want it) I think it will be ready to send it out into the world. Oh, and I better set a few pillows around the house to beat out my frustration on.

Many thanks to all of the guys and gals in the flash fiction contests - my writing truly has improved as a direct result (some of you flash fiction folks may recognize this story, actually - its an extended (and edited) piece from last year).

My thoughts feel a bit disjointed at the moment... I need to go dance this off or something...